10
kos) crossed the Indus and waged war on Sandrokottos, king of the Indians who dwelt about it, until be made friends and entered into relations of marriage with him.' So also Strabo (xv. p. 724):—'Seleukos Nikator gave to Sandrokottos' (sc. a large part of Arianê). Conf. p. 689:—'The Indians afterwards held a large part of Arianê, (which they had received from the Makedonians), 'entering into marriage relations with him, and receiving in return five hundred elephants' (of which Sandrakottos had nine thousand—Plinius, vi. 22-5); and Plutarch, Alex. 62:—'For not long after, Androkottos, being king, presented Seleukos with five hundred elephants, and with six hundred thousand men attacked and subdued all India.' Phylarchos (Fragm. 28) in Athenaaus, p. 18 D., refers to some other wonderful enough presents as being sent to Seleukos by Sandrokottos.
"Diodorus (lib. xx.), in setting forth the affairs of Seleukos, has not said a single word about the Indian war. But it would be strange that that expedition should be mentioned so incidentally by other historians, if it were true, as many recent writers have contended, that Seleukos in this war reached the middle of India as far as the Ganges and the town Palimbothra,—nay, even advanced as far as the mouths of the Ganges, and therefore left Alexander far behind him. This baseless theory has been well refuted by Lassen (De Pentap. Ind. 61), by A. G. Schlegel (Berliner Calender,
MS. readings in Diodorus, xvii. 93; Pharrasii in Curtius, IX. ii. 3; Præsidæ in Justinus, XII. viii. 9. See note on Fragm. 13.
